A recent Touchstone article, "Neanderthals Aren't Cool" (March 2003), illuminates some of the social challenges faced by those who would advocate for traditional biblical familial structures. The author lays it out: Those who promote the biblical understanding of the headship of the male in the Church and Christian home are not going to be popular. He writes that "we need to learn to be okay with not fitting in. Our concern for truth, God's glory, and, yes, our love for men and women, must be greater than our desire to be liked and affirmed. We must ask God to make us courageous, thick-skinned, and desirous of hearing his 'Well done, my good and fathful servant,' more than the applause of men. We need to grow up and learn to live increasingly for an audience of One. Since when has fidelity to Christ ever meant that a person would be liked and approved of by the majority?"
It's hard to be "uncool." It's lonely. We all have a legitimate need to be liked, to interact with others. It's difficult when we find ourselves on the outside. And it's not even that being on the outside is a direct result of active antipathy. It has been said, "People are cruel, not because they won't like you, but because they won't tell you why." So the uncool don't get invited to parties, don't get asked to speak, don't get asked for their counsel. And aren't told why.
It's doubly difficult for traditional, orthodox Christians. Not only does the "world" reject them (who, after all, wants to talk about sin and final judgment?), but many of their fellow Christians reject them as well. Not a rejection that is active and intense. Rather it's more a matter of a yawning bafflement why those "conservative fundamentalists" just don't get it?
The "it" of course, is the understanding that we Christians are to take our cues from the world. This is usually couched in terms of relevance. We want to be "effective" in proclaiming the Gospel. So we must do it in ways the "world" can understand.
But this is mostly why I'm not very sympathetic toward those who want to stress "relevance" when it comes to our interaction with those outside the faith. Relevance all too often becomes acceptance. The distance between wanting to be relevant and wanting to be accepted is roughly the width of one human intention. The first attempts to adapt practice without changing content. The second changes both. The trouble with relevance, however, is that when we change practice to conform to expectation, we change content, whether we intend to or not. We go from saying, "Thus says the Lord," to "We want you to be comfortable with what the Lord says." We intend to remove non-essential obstacles to a person's hearing the Gospel. What we tell them is, "If you don't like it, we'll change it."
But traditional Christians want to ask, "Who's our audience?" Is it those outside the Church? Or is it God? Funny thing, traditionalists say, we are not called to be relevant. We're called to be faithful. We're not called to take our cues from the world. We're called to follow Christ. We're not called to adopt the practices of the world. We're called to test the spirits. We're not called to accept people as Christ. We're called to serve Christ by serving people. No one says, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Spirit. If a person does not have the Spirit, they are not part of Christ. They may have God's image, but they are not restored to his likeness.
We Christians have an audience. But it is not who we think it is. We do not perform for the world. We serve God. That service means rejecting all that that contradicts the truth of God. God didn't call us to be popular and well-liked. So when we sound an awful lot like the world, we should take a look within. Are we speaking truth in relevant ways? Or are we seeking acceptance? The test of our faithfulness is not whether we are accepted by the world. The test of our faifhfulness is when we speak the truth of God in the face of rejection. Let me throw out some incendiary topics: Women's ordination. The relation between husbands and wives in the home. Abortion. Sexuality. Test yourselves, the Apostle says. See whether you are in the faith. That's right; there is a standard. And it is not called the world or its "wisdom."
Which is more important to us in these matters: A degree? A vocation? Invitations to parties? The respect and esteem of colleagues? A career? Friendships? Or the "Well done" of our Lord who died for us?
Posted by Clifton at April 24, 2003 09:03 PM | TrackBack